Wilson Wins West Side City Council Race, Besting Boylan, Law-Gisiko
Wilson was the man that Eric Bottcher had endorsed to be his successor. Council speaker Julie Menin and most other politicos had also endorsed Wilson. Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a surprise last minute endorsement of Lindsey Boylan, who finished a distant second.
| 30 Apr 2026 | 12:53
Carl Wilson, the chief of staff for former city council member Erik Bottcher who was elected to the NYS Senate is the winner of the four-way race for city council district 3 on the west side. He was 17 points ahead of the number two candidate Lindsay Boylan in the April 28 special election. (
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Wilson, pictured at his victory party on April 28, had the support of Council Speaker Julie Menin (left) and State Senator Erik Bottcher (back, center). (
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani had endorsed Lindsey Boylan for District 3. While it seemed to give her campaign a boost, she still finished a distant second. (
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The four-way race for district 3 city council included (from left) Leslie Boghosian-Murphy, Lindsey Boylan, Layla Law-Gisiko and Carl Wilson. (
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Carl Wilson racked up 43.1 percent of the ballots cast in the April 28, special election to fill the west side city council seat that opened up when Erik Bottcher was elected to the New York State Senate.
Wilson held off a perceived surge from Lindsey Boylan, who received a surprise last minute endorsement from Mayor Zohran Mamdani. While Mamdani’s endorsement followed that of other Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) council members and state legislators from Brooklyn and Queens. Curiously, the DSA itself didn’t endorse Boylan, whose personal essay, “Why I Joined The DSA,” appeared in the August 2025 issue of the Socialist-friendly newspaper, The Indypendent. Boylan’s own campaign was ambiguous about her party affiliation, noting her individual DSA endorsements but without noting that DSA was her party too.
Most regular Democratic leaders including Bottcher and City Council Speaker Julie Menin backed Wilson. Among Manhatttan’s eminent solons, only Harvey Epstein endorsed Boylan.
Technically, the results won’t become final for several more days as the Board of Elections tallies second place votes in the ranked choice voting. The winner needs to get over the 50 percent threshold.
But the unofficial tally released by the Board of Elections on April 28 at 9:58 p.m., less than an hour after the polls closed at 9 p.m., showed Wilson with 6,129 votes amounting to 43.08 percent of the votes cast, giving him a commanding 17 point lead over Lindsey Boylan who pulled 3,650 votes, amounting to 25.66 percent.
Boylan, an urban planner and Andrew Cuomo advisor who was the first woman to accuse the Governor of sexual harassment, had previously run for Congress in 2019, in a failed bid to unseat Jerry Nadler.
Layla Law-Gisiko, a activist and long serving member of Community Board 5, pulled in 2,852 votes and 20.05 percent of votes cast while Leslie Boghosian-Murphy, a former journalist and chair of Community Board 4, had 1,525 votes and 10.72 percent of the votes cast.
Many saw the west side council district race which includes Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Hell’s Kitchen and parts of the UWS as a proxy battle between Mayor Mamdani and city council speaker Menin.
Menin, who joined Wilson’s victory party at Vers, a popular West Village gay bar, said on X Tuesday night: “Tonight, we had a resounding victory by electing Carl Wilson as our next City Council Member.”
“While we are waiting to count every vote, the numbers tonight are clear,” Wilson said in a statement. “District 3 has backed our message of affordability, compassion, and fighting for what matters in our community, and shown that local voices and neighborhood leadership still matter most.”
Other Wilson endorsees including Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Comptroller Mark Levine, assembly member Tony Simone, council member Shaun Abrea and forcern council speaker Corey Johnson.
While the results won’t become official until the second choice votes are tallied, Boylan said she had already called Wilson to congratulate him on his victory.
Wilson continues the tradition of a chief of staff moving up when his boss moves on and electing a LBGTQ candidate in their place.
Wilson’s campaign focused on affordability, transit, quality-of-life issues, the arts and LGBTQ representation. Wilson was the only openly gay candidate in the race, in a district which includes the Stonewall Inn and is widely considered to be the birthplace of the gay rights movement.
One flashpoint in the election emerged on the debate over whether to try to override Mamdani’s recent veto of a bill to establish protest buffer zones at schools and educational institutions. The bill had passed the council overwhelmingly but was four votes short of a veto proof majority.
Wilson had said he would back Menin if she tried to override the veto. Had Boylan won, it’s widely believed she’d have been a Mamdani ally.
With several other more pressing matters such as the city budget taking center stage, Menin had yet to decide if she would push an override measure. But if she does, the imminent election of Wilson puts her one vote closer.
The result are expected to be formally certified by the Board of Elections on May 5 and because the seat is vacant, Wilson will be sworn in almost immediately.
“He built an unbelievable coalition that inspired voters across his district, and I can’t wait to welcome him as our next Council Member!,” said Menin on X.
But he’ll have little chance to rest on his laurels since he will have to run for re-election in November. The special election candidates did not run with official party labels. Wilson’s party was the For All of Us party and Boylan ran on a People Power candidate. But Wilson, Boylan, Law-Gisiko and Boghosian-Murphy are all registered Democrats.